If You Desire

by Mara

  At the mere mention of Grey, Hugh was determined to take Jane from this place—

  A massive hand clamped on his shoulder and yanked back. “Could’ve planted a knife in your back a dozen times these last ten minutes,” a deep voice intoned from behind him. “Losing your touch?”

  “Ethan?” Hugh wrenched his arm back, throwing off his older brother’s grip, then swung a lowering glance at him. “What are you doing here—”

  “Christ, what happened to your face?” Ethan interrupted.

  “Explosion. Falling rock.” Hugh had been caught in a shower of slate in a battle down in Andorra just days ago—the same battle Courtland had nearly lost his leg in.

  “Now answer the question.”

  “Went by Weyland’s. Caught Quin just as he was readying to leave,” he replied. “And lucky thing I did. It’s no’ like you to be so careless in a place like this. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking I’m taking Jane home.”

  “Weyland only wants her followed. Stop shaking your head—Grey has no’ made England yet.” When Hugh remained unconvinced, Ethan said, “And he might no’ make it here alive. So just calm yourself and take your nursemaid duty like a man.”

  “Is that what I’ve been called back here for? Why would Weyland want me?”

  “He seemed to think I would unnerve Jane while protecting her,” Ethan said casually. His scarred face had been known to scare women. “And that Quinton is only qualified to divest certain foreign ladies of certain critical secrets. No, Weyland needed a gunman. And you know Grey best.”

  Hugh returned his attention to Jane, who was at that moment passing the cross-street where he stood concealed, so close he could hear her throaty, sensual voice, but couldn’t make out the words. She was clad in a rich green dress with a plunging neckline that bared her alabaster shoulders and revealed how much fuller her body had become. Her face was partially covered by a mask of dark green feathers that fanned out to the sides, like the wings they’d been plucked from.

  In that dress and that mask, she looked…wanton.

  He wasn’t even surprised when cold sweat dotted his forehead. He’d always reacted physically to her. He remembered well the symptoms he’d endured that last summer he’d spent with her—the thundering heart, the need to swallow half a dozen times a minute, the stifled shudders of pleasure at her lightest touch.

  One of her soft whispers in his ear could make him bite back a groan….

  “Is Courtland back in London with you?” Ethan asked.

  Without looking away from her, Hugh said, “I had to leave him behind when I got the missive from Weyland. Court injured his leg and could no’ ride fast enough.”

  “Where did you leave him?” Ethan snapped. “Far enough away fromher , I hope.”

  Hugh had been charged with more than just seeing Court back to England—he was supposed to make sure that Court didn’t have second thoughts and return for his woman, Annalía Llorente. “I left him in France. Court will no’ go back for her. He understands what he’ll do to her if he returns,” Hugh said confidently enough, though he had to wonder. Court yearned for his lass so badly it was palpable. But Hugh hadn’t had a choice except to abandon him, not after learning Jane was in danger. “What the hell is this I’m hearing about Grey?” Hugh asked. He had counted the man a friend until the last couple of years.

  “Weyland sent him on a suicide mission. That failed.”

  That got Hugh to face Ethan. “Were you a part of that?” Sometimes, most times, he wished Ethan had never been recruited with himself by Weyland.

  Ethan gave him a chilling half smile—distorting the whitened scar winding down his face—the sneer that now seemed to say,Brother, had I been, there would be no failure . Then he replied, “I was no’, but I did volunteer to take him out. Weyland seemed to think I was personally too involved, and declined.”

  “You volunteered?” Hugh asked in disgust.

  Ethan shrugged, unconcerned. “Well, go on. Doona let me stop you from overtaking their little coterie once more so you can see her from the front.”

  Hugh scowled, but Ethan was well aware of his desire for Jane—there was no use denying it. “Have no’ seen her in years,” he bit out defensively as he strode down the side lane with Ethan following. “Curious about her.”

  “It’s like a carriage wreck I can see coming from a mile away,” Ethan muttered. “First Court with his lass and now you with Jane—again. Thankfully, I remain immune.”

  Hugh ignored his comment, settling into another dark spot farther up the street. “Why is Weyland so certain he’ll target Jane?”

  “Grey wants revenge,” Ethan said simply. “He’ll destroy what’s most precious to the old man.”

  Just then, Jane laughed at something one of her cousins said, and Hugh returned his gaze to her. She had always been quick to laugh—a quality that was foreign to him, but one that had beguiled him. She’d told him once, while cupping his face with her delicate hand and gazing up at him solemnly, that she promised to laugh enough for both of them, if need be.

  “So now Grey plans to kill Jane,” Ethan murmured over his shoulder, “seeks to slit her throat like he’s done with other women. Only now it seems he’s got a real taste for it. Likes to make it last.”

  “Enough,” Hugh grated, still staring at Jane’s soft smile. The idea that Grey needed to be taken out permanently had never sat well with Hugh, even as he understood it might be the only course. No longer would he be reluctant.

  “I wager that right about now, you wish my offer to kill Grey had been accepted,” Ethan said, easily reading him. “But no’ to worry, little brother, it certainly has now. Weyland will do anything to protect her.”

  Ethan jerked his chin at Jane, faced Hugh, then did a double take back to the girls, only to stare. A disquieting interest flickered in his eyes, then flared—all the more unsettling to Hugh because it was completely unfamiliar.Interest? In Ethan’s deadened eyes?

  At once, Hugh’s fists clenched. Was Ethan casting that hungry look at Jane?

  Hugh had him shoved against a building wall, his forearm lodged against Ethan’s neck, before he’d even realized his own intention. They used to fight constantly when younger, and had mutually called a truce when the two determined they were getting better at it and could easily kill each other.

  Hugh was ready to resume hostilities.

  Unaffected by Hugh’s ready violence, Ethan gave him a weary look. “Rest easy. I’m no’ ogling your precious Jane.”

  After a long moment, Hugh released him, believing him, although it was hard to understand how any man would not be battling lust for her. “Then what held your attention?” Still he was looking over Hugh’s shoulder, and Hugh followed his gaze. “Claudia? The one in the red mask?” That would fit Ethan. Hugh remembered Jane telling him Claudia possessed a wild and wicked nature.

  When no answer came, Hugh turned back. “Belinda? The tall brunette?”

  Ethan shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes from the object of his attention—the third girl, a short blonde wearing a blue mask, whom Hugh didn’t recognize.

  Since the injury to his face, Ethan had seemed to lose interest in so many things—including chasing skirts, as he’d once been wont to do. Now, it was as if years ofsomething , some kind of need, rushed to the fore.

  Ethan, it seemed, was not immune.

  The unusual notice shocked Hugh. “I doona know her, but she must be one of Jane’s friends. And she looks young, no’ more than twenty. Too young for you.” Ethan was an old,old thirty-three.

  “If I’m as bad as you and Court and all of the clan believe, then I’ll find her that much more enticing for it, will I no’?” In the blink of an eye, Ethan’s hand shot out to snare a passing masquerade-goer’s domino. The man opened his mouth to object, took one look at Ethan’s ominous expression, and darted away.

  “Doona toy with her, Ethan.”

  “Afraid I’ll ruin your chances with Jane?
” Ethan asked as he donned the mask. “Hate to remind you, brother, but they were ruined before you even met her. And you’ve got a book to prove it.”

  Shadowed to walk with death…

  “Your fate is just as grim as mine,” Hugh reminded him, “yet you’re going after a woman.”

  “Ah, but I’m in no danger of falling in love with her”—he turned to stride into the masquerade, tossing over his shoulder—“so it’s no’ likely my dallying will get her killed.”

  With a grated sound of frustration, Hugh followed him in.

  Three

  Abrick dropped into a reticule was a necessary evil when touring Haymarket Street, Jane Weyland knew, but the drawstring strap was murder on her wrist.

  As Jane and her companions—two intrepid cousins and their visiting friend—waited impatiently in queue for admission to the Haymarket warehouse, Jane shifted the bag to her other hand yet again.

  Though tonight was by no means their first foray to tickle a bit at London’s dark underbelly—their decadent haunts included the east-end gaming dens, the racy stereoscopic pictorial shows, the annual Russian Circus Erotisk—the lascivious scene that greeted them gave even Jane pause.

  A horde of courtesans fronted the warehouse like a painted, and aggressive, army. Masked, well-dressed patrons, in clothing that screamed stock-exchange funds or old-money tweed and university, perused the wares, physically sampling before deciding which one, or ones, they would sponsor and escort inside.

  “Janey, you’ve never told us what brought about this change of heart about attending,” her cousin Claudia said in a light tone, no doubt trying to relax the others. “But I’ve a theory.” She must dread that the others would back out. Raven-haired “Naughty Claudie,” tonight sporting a scarlet mask, lived for thrills like this.

  “Do tell,” said her sister Belinda, a heads-and-tails opposite of Claudia. Belinda was brilliant and serious-minded, here tonight for “research,” and not euphemistically. She planned to expose “egregious social inequities,” but wanted to write with authority on the subject of, well, the other side of inequity. Already, Jane could tell, Belinda was eyeing the scene in terms of reform from behind her cream-colored mask.

  “Did we need a reason to come,” asked the mysterious Madeleine Van Rowen, “other than the fact that this is a courtesans’ ball?” Maddy was a childhood friend of Claudia’s who was visiting for a few weeks. She was English by birth, but now lived in Paris—a seedy Parisian garret, if rumors were to be believed.

  Jane suspected that Maddy had journeyed to London to call on an old friendship and see if she could snare Claudia’s older brother, Quin. Jane was not at all perturbed by this. If Madeleine could get Quin to settle down and marry, then she deserved him and all his money.

  In fact, Jane genuinely liked the girl, who fit in with their set perfectly. Jane, Belinda, and Claudia were three of the Weyland Eight—eight female first cousins notorious for adventures, pranks, and general hijinks—and were the only ones born and bred in London. Like all young Londoners who had coin in their pockets, they spent their days and nights recklessly pursuing all the modern pleasures to be had in this mad city, and all the old sins still on offer, within reason.

  Jane and her cousins were moneyed, but not aristocratic. They were gently bred but savvy, ladylike but jaded. Like Jane and her cousins, Maddy knew how to take care of herself and seemed perfectly at ease in the face of this risqué masquerade.

  As if revealing a great secret, Claudia said, “Jane’s finally going to accept that gorgeous Freddie Bidworth’s proposal.”

  Guilt flared, and Jane adjusted her emerald green mask to disguise it. “You’ve got me all figured out, Claudie.” She and Freddie Bidworth were an item of sorts, and everyone assumed Jane would eventually marry Freddie—including him. But Jane had yet to accept the rich, handsome aristocrat.

  And she feared she never could.

  That conclusion was what had brought about her change of heart tonight concerning the masquerade—she needed something to get her mind off the conundrum she found herself in. At twenty-seven, Jane knew prospects like him would only become more and more scarce. And if she didn’t marry Freddie, then whom? Jane knew the train was leaving the station, yet she couldn’t board.

  She’d told her cousins she wavered because of Freddie’s horrid mother and sister. In truth, she’d hesitated because, her upstanding father excepted, she didn’t trust men.

  Over the last couple of years, Jane had begun to realize she’d been ruined. Not socially ruined. No matter how badly the Weyland Eight behaved, they never could seem to manage that coup, since her unassuming father, a mere businessman, had an inexplicable influence with the aristocracy and powerful government figures. Invitations continued to arrive, even as the cousins shook their baffled heads.

  No, a black-haired Scot with a deep, husky voice and intense eyes had ruined Jane—though he had never touched her, never even kissed her, no matter how much she’d teased and tempted him.

  Belinda frowned at Jane. “You’ve come to terms with Bidworth’s family?”

  “Yes, I believe so,” Jane replied carefully. “I’ve just been moving slowly with something so important.” Slowly? Freddie had asked her the first time nearly a year ago.

  “Are these wild oats we’re sowing, Jane?” Maddy asked, making Jane wonder how wild any oats would seem to a woman from the not-nice part of Paris. Sometimes on their nightly thrill-seeking adventures, Maddy had appeared…bored. “A last hurrah?”

  “Did we need a reason to come,” Jane said wryly, repeating Maddy, “other than the fact that this is a courtesans’ ball?”

  Luckily, they’d reached the bottleneck of the entrance, where a burly attendant with a pig mask and a shining pate accepted the steep admission price, so the subject was dropped. As the four labored to keep their skirts from being dirtied in the crush, Jane tendered a guinea apiece for everyone—mainly to pay for Maddy and not hurt her pride.

  Though Maddy was attired in a lavish sapphire gown, Jane had seen the girl’s trunks in Claudia’s room and knew her stockings and underthings had been mended and remended. Her jewels were paste. Maddy spoke of French mansions and elegant parties, but Jane suspected she was nearly destitute. Sometimes the girl had a back against-the-wall air about her.

  Once the attendant waved them through, Jane blithely crossed the threshold with the others close behind. Inside the warehouse, masses of perfumed bodies swarmed around the edges of the central dance floor, or waltzed to the jaunty music of a seven-man band. Legally, this place was termed an “unlicensed dance hall.”

  Those in the know called it “the Hive.”

  If the outside of the Hive had been rough and unassuming, the interior was lush. The walls were silk papered, and expensive-smelling incense burned, oozing a flat layer of smoke that floated just over the heads of the crowd. Along the walls were massive murals, hanging from shiny brass chains and painted with nymphs and priapic satyrs in lurid poses. Beneath the murals were Persian rugs with pillows cast about. There, women kissed lechers and fondled them artfully through their breeches—or were fondled in return.

  Anything more, Jane surmised, was taken to the rooms lining the back wall.

  Happily married Belinda murmured, “Just look at what these women are forced to do to earn their coin.”

  “Earncoin ?” Claudia breathed, feigning ignorance. “You mean you can…? Ah! And to think I was doing it for free!”

  Belinda glared, because twenty-eight-year-old Claudia was, in fact, carrying on a torrid affair with the family’s groom. “Claudia, you might try doing itwhile married .”

  An exhibit, of sorts, silenced all of them—halting yet another sisterly row.

  Men and women with shaven bodies covered in a layer of clay posed as statues, motionless even when admiring patrons cupped and weighed body parts.

  “This was so worth attending,” Claudia said with a quirked eyebrow, gaze riveted to the well-endowed and muscle-bound men.


  Jane had to agree. Nothing like naked, real live statues to distract the mind from thoughts of marriage, ticking clocks, and rumbling-voiced Scotsmen who disappeared without a word.

  Their group had little time to admire the scene as the crowd, circling the warehouse like a current, pushed them along. When they passed a table where a half-naked debauchee in a fox mask served punch, they each eagerly swooped up a glass, then made for the wall to get out of the traffic.

  Jane drank deeply. “Well. No one told us coverage from the waist up was optional—for both sexes,” she observed as another half-clad woman sauntered by, breasts bouncing as she smiled flirtatiously up at her. Jane gave her a saucy wink back, as was polite. “Otherwise,” Jane continued dryly, “I might have opted for a lower-cut bodice and a bigger brick.”